On Mon, Jul 15, 2013 at 6:17 AM, Nick Coghlan <ncoghlan@gmail.com> wrote:
================= Private interfaces
Unless explicitly documented otherwise, a leading underscore on any name indicates that it is an internal implementation detail and any backwards compatibility guarantees do not apply. It is strongly encouraged that private APIs (whether modules, classes, functions, attributes or other names) be clearly marked in this way, as Python users may rely on introspection to identify available functionality and may be misled into believing an API without a leading underscore is in fact a public API with the standard backwards compatibility guarantees.
Very good.
While the explicit use of a leading underscore in the names of private modules is preferred, all test modules and all modules that are not explicitly covered in the documentation are also considered private interfaces, even when their names do not start with a leading underscore and even if they include a module level documentation string. This includes submodules of packages that are documented as if they were a single module.
But wait, aren't this about how to use other peoples modules, more than a style guide of how to write your own modules? I don't think this belongs in PEP 8 at all. //Lennart